Lesson 3: Queen of Percussion
Timpanist Masumi Okuyama, an admirer of Chiaki, is jealous of Nodame's relationship with him and begins tormenting her with pranks. Mine suggests a contest: who can get a date with Chiaki on Christmas Eve. Summary The effeminate timpani Major Masumi Okuyama, also known as Masumi-chan, becomes claustrophobic during his attempts to practice and runs out in tears. Outside, he wails over wanting to return to his home in Yamagata, but after spying Chiaki entering the campus, declares he cannot leave as he is madly in love with the handsome piano major. His daydreams are broken up by the appearance of Nodame who latches onto Shinichi’s arm as if he’d been waiting for her and follows him into the school despite his protests. Masumi is enraged by this and declares Nodame as the top on his curse list. Inside their classroom, Nodame compliments Chiaki on a piece he composed himself, describing it as “romantic” and requesting it be named “Nodame Rhapsody”, which he rejects. He wants the piece to be for an orchestra but has no confidence that one would even get a chance to play it. Nodame, misinterpreting his sudden sadness, thinks he’s worries about what to make her for dinner which gets her clocked. Despite this, she’s glad that he’d given her a list of ingredients to buy for their dinner but her joy is cut off when a sudden downpour of water (plus a stray bucket) soaks her all over, though she can’t see who did it. She looks into her mailbox and finds a chain letter predicting her death if she doesn’t forward one hundred copies of it, freaking her out until Chiaki tells her it’s a prank. She also reveals that since the shopping list was ruined in the earlier water incident, she’s bought the wrong ingredients for dinner including a packet of locusts. He is both enraged and disgusted. The next morning, Nodame is confronted with a slew of pranks including banana peels, firecrackers, and rubber arrows. Her friends deny that they’re to blame for this (though Maki is angered to learn of Nodame previously pinching her food). During the lunch period, Nodame brags to her friends about Chiaki making her a lunch of last night’s leftovers but finds someone has already eaten majority of it, leaving behind only the locusts which Chiaki had wanted to get rid of. The attack on her food is what finally enrages Nodame and she prepares to find the person responsible. Evening comes and while Nodame lay asleep outside on a bench, the “mysterious” attacker approaches her with a marker in hand. He’s caught by Mine, having walked right into Nodame’s trap, and the violist identifies the perpetrator as Masumi who is also his classmate. Nodame demands to know why he’d been pulling pranks on her and Masumi demands she stay away from Chiaki, finding her an unsuited to be with his “prince”. Nodame is confused over this love and Mine informs her that Masumi is attracted to other men though he identifies himself as a better woman than Nodame, challenging her to a competition. Mine suggests they battle it out to see who can score a date with Chiaki for Christmas Eve. Foy his ploy, Masumi gets tickets to a Christmas concert starring the “King of Conductors”, Izagi, a play that Mine agrees would work very well on Chiaki. However, Masumi doesn’t have the confidence to make friends with the boy, so Mine offers to help him out. At Chiaki’s apartment, Nodame outright asks the man to come to her room on Christmas eve but he’s so distracted with his composition, he answers “yes” without really hearing her, though she takes it as a confirmation to his having dinner with her. Chiaki, overhearing a classmate of his has been studying overseas and attending a music seminar, learns Viera was at the same seminar and seems to have made a connection to the other student. Maybe even taking him on as the pupil Shinichi wanted to be. He angrily rips apart his original composition, declaring that it has no point if he can’t set foot on a plane Nomade rings his doorbell at is moment, asking him what he would prefer as thee Christmas cake she’s going to bake. When he’s confused by this question, she attempts to remind him of the previous promise to join her on Christmas but he denies having promised such a thing and slams the door on her so he can go back to studying, leaving her heartbroken. The next morning, Chiaki is approached by Mine who drags him along to watch Masumi’s timpani practice with an orchestra. However, Masumi becomes so bent on impressing Chiaki that he starts dancing behind his drumming, not only turning off Chiaki but also getting him kicked off the orchestra. Both “women” have lost the competition and go sobbing to Mine over their bad luck. Masumi is especially worried given that as a timpanist, he requires an orchestra to play for or he has no musical career. Hearing this and with a sudden change of heart, Nodame proposes the three of them form an ensemble together. Saiko is walking with Shinichi and asks him what his plans for Christmas are. She offers to bake him a cake and in the process, reminds him that he did in fact promise Nodame to spend Christmas with her. Though he’s unwilling, he intends to keep this promise to her, but finds her not at home. Her friends have also noticed she isn’t around much lately and Chiaki, over hearing them, believes that she’s forgotten about him just like Vieira. From a nearby window, he hears the original music piece he’d composed earlier, having been rearranged by Nodame, Mine, and Masumi into a jazz piece for their ensemble. The quarreling duo are in an argument over tempo while Chiaki listens to their practice, amazed that Nodame had only heard him play it once and that they’ve recreated it. He seems touched by this gesture. The trio admire the piece but find they can’t do it quite right without extra hands for the piano. Chiaki enters, offering to loan his assistance, and decides that he’s better off not envying what other people can do if he just focuses on changing his own world. By the time Christmas arrives, Chiaki is still trying to each the others to play his orchestra piece, officially ruining any chance of holiday fun and entertainment. Featured Music *Beethoven: **Symphony No. 3 by Beethoven, (an original work by Suguru Matsutani) Category:Episodes Category:Season 1